For the 4th and final Remix Project, I chose the option of the Movies by Numbers. I was torn between doing Number 1 and going with an individual/alone/single mixed with a winners/best/first theme, or doing Number 13 and going with unlucky/creepy. I chose Number 1 because I am very competitive so that sounded fun!

Here is the link to my remix video:

Hope you enjoy!

Here are the steps to create this project.

First Steps:
1) First choose which number you think you could come up with a theme for this project.
2) Go to Google Images and find the images that you would like to use for your number video.
3) Save each image as a .jpeg into a folder. (I would suggest creating a folder to save all images and music files into for this one project.)
4) Next, I went to YouTube and found the song that fit my theme.
5) Copy the URL.
6) Next, pull up a YouTube to MP3 converter in google.
7) Paste the URL into the site. Download the file. (This site has been on Google for a long time, so I’m assuming that this is totally legal. Additionally, you are adding value.)
8) Now that you have gathered all of your images and music, you are ready to make your movie.

Movie Steps
1) Open Windows Live Movie Maker. (If you don’t have this installed on your computer, it is a free download online.)
2) When you open Movie Maker, the home screen will have an add images button. Click on that to add your images. (I saved my images as a number in the order that I wanted them to be inserted into Movie Maker because it’s difficult to move them if you have a lot of images once in MM.
3) To change the timing on how long the images stay on the screen, click on the images (hold down CTRL and then click on multiple images) and then go to the edit tab and find the duration. Mine was set on 7 seconds, which is long for images with no text, so I changed 7 to 1 second on some images and 3-5 on others.
4) Next, click on the add music button to insert your tunes. I used two different music clips. Insert music file you want first to make life easier.
5) To edit the music (say you don’t want the entire song like I didn’t for my first tune), you can change the start music time and end music time. You have to do trial and error to make it perfect. Continue to play the work so far to see what it sounds like.
6) You can also fade in and fade out. All you have to do is click on the beginning or end of the music and chose the slow, medium, or fast option to fade.
7) To save your project as a movie, you must click on the “Save Movie” option, NOT the save project. It won’t turn it into a video if you save it as a project. You have now created your movie!

When I read over the description for “If Movie Posters Told the Truth,” I knew I wanted to do a scary movie because they are all so predictable. One of my favorite suspenseful movies is Final Destination 2. This may be due to the fact that a friend of mine took me to see this movie with her without having seen the first one. I thought it was amazing because I was enwrapped in the guessing of who was going to get away from death, because someone had to escape. Afterwards, I went back and viewed the first film and then watched the additional sequels that came out, and regardless of their repetitiveness, I still like these movies. However, I did tire of the third film and any that came out after that. I wanted to let the viewers know that this movie is exactly like the first.
First, I had to find an image of the movie poster that would show up large enough without being pixelated. Next, I pasted it into a PowerPoint slide. Since the background was already black, it made the next few steps much easier. I also set the background of the slide to solid black fill so that the original image would blend in with the rest of the slide. Next, I had to insert a text box and write my new title and caption, both of which were separate text boxes. After I had my text inserted, I had to make the text box show up over the top of the image. To do that, I had to right click within the text box and choose, “Bring to Front.” I played around with the fonts in PowerPoint in order to try to match the fonts on the original movie poster. I found the title to be most similar to the font DFKai-SB. I wanted the “Again” portion of my title to mirror the “2” in the original title by making it larger than the rest of it. I also capitalized the entire title to match the original. Next, I noticed that the original title had a blue glow behind it. I highlighted the text, right clicked, and clicked on “Format Text Effects.” The “Glow and Soft Edges” tab allowed me to pick a thickness and color to glow behind the text. I intentionally left the original text and my inserted text both visible up until this point so that I could use the original as a guide. After my text was how I wanted it to look, I right clicked inside the text box and chose to fill the box with solid black. This was much easier than it could have been because the background was already black. I repeated these steps for the caption at the top as well, except I made the thickness of the glow thinner and chose “Chiller” as the most appropriate font. I then saved the PowerPoint slide as a .jpeg file.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the turnout of the image. It ended up being easier than I thought. It just took some time playing around in PowerPoint. I originally played around with the image in Paint. I even painted over the original text with black but then decided that it would be easier to match the text if it was still there. I also decided it would be better to have access to more fonts in PowerPoint, so I got rid of the Paint version of the poster and started over. My original intentions were to try to match my remix poster with the original poster as much as possible. I struggled when it came to getting the font to match the original poster. I wanted to have the glow behind it and had a hard time figuring out how to do that. I played around with the text a good bit. I even tried looking up glow letters on Google to insert over the image, but I knew there was an easier way to do it than that. I finally saw the “Format Text Effects” option when I right clicked and found the glow option. After that, I just played around with the glow color and thickness until it looked close to the same as the original.
I think an assignment like this would work great with any novel or play that was being read in the classroom. It could be used as a summarization activity at the end of the unit or lesson. It is first acting as a short, but sweet summary. Then they could go deeper into the text, providing textual evidence even, to support the reasons for the new truthful poster. They could demonstrate their learning by reflecting on the choices they made with the poster and for what reason. What were they trying to show about the novel or play through this poster image? It also lets the teacher know whether or not they enjoyed the reading/acting.
Another assignment that could incorporate this idea is a unit on persuasion. They could take a normal persuasive advertisement and write the truth over the persuasive verbiage. This would require the student to analyze the persuasive digital text and then alter it by writing their truth about the topic, which could incorporate research before they complete the image remix.

Heather and I did a project over the summer on this girl. We analyzed her two documentary films for hours. I felt like I knew her in a way when we turned in our project. I was rooting for her to accomplish her dreams of becoming a doctor. We just found out that she was shot in the head by the Taliban. She’s in critical condition. I hope she makes it. Here’s the link to read more.Pakistani Activist, 14, is Shot by Taliban

For this assignment, I was inspired by a romantic proposal video that my husband and I found in a moving box that had yet to be unpacked. I’ve been in reminiscent, little-girl-crush mode all week. I decided I wanted to remix a ringtone to assign to Nathan when he calls me.
Music has always been an important part of my life (I still have a secret desire to be a famous Reba some day). I find meanings and connections in music in which I can relate. Therefore, I decided to compile some of the songs that make me think of Nathan and remix those for his ringtone. The first two chunks of the remix are two different chunks of the song “Springstein” by Eric Church (particularly focusing on the lines “Funny how a melody sounds like a memory”), the next portion is from “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?” by Thompson Square, and the last two sections are from “Goodnight” by Gloriana.

How to re-create this awesomeness:)
1) Decide which songs you would like to include in your remix and the portion of the song you want. You need to keep in mind the time length of the portions that you want to use.
2) I didn’t know how to download songs from my itunes account and place them into Audacity, so I recorded them in Audacity while they were playing in my itunes. To do this, press the record button in Audacity and then press play in itunes.
However, now that I’m done with this, the best way to download from itunes is to set your itunes to download files as .wav files.
3) After the song you want has been recorded, use the trim option tool to highlight the sections you want to remove. After highlighting them, press the delete key on your keyboard. It’s better to trim too little than too much. Continue to listen to the clip to make sure it is the way you want it.
4) When your music clip is perfect, go to File and choose Export. Save the file.
5) Repeat for all music clips that you want to include in your remix ringtone.

6) When you are ready to compile the clips together, bring up a new , empty Audacity window. Go to File and choose Import. Find the files and upload the clip you want to go first. Repeat for all clips uploading them in the order you wish them to play. Each new clip will upload under the previous file.
7) Choose the time shift tool to drag the second sound clip to the end of the previous sound clip. Repeat.
8) You can choose the selection tool to highlight the music clip portions that you want to add special effects to, such as fade in and out.
9) When you are finished, go to File, choose Export and save your finished Romantic (or not) Ringtone!

My New Appreciation for Photo Editors
I’m not going to lie…When asked to edit an image in Pixlr or Photoshop, I was a little nervous. I have never done anything but a collage. In fact, the biggest difficulty I encountered while trying to complete this task was figuring out how to navigate the picture editing program, Pixlr. However, after I figured out how to navigate, it was pretty easy. YouTube tutorials help a lot, even though I did have to figure out some things on my own still.
I knew I wanted to do the option of Time of Day because the beach picture was beautiful, and I love nature images. Although I would have loved to travel to Jamaica and spend a week on the beach gathering different images throughout the day, I settled on a tree in my backyard. Usually, there is a beautiful sun set in my back yard, but I did not luck up to capture the images on a night that was red, orange, pink, and yellow. However, I still am very happy with the final image.
For those that would like to try this on their own, I hope these instructions are easier to follow than anything I found online.How To:1) Take multiple pictures throughout the day and upload them to your computer.2) Log on to Pixlr, Online Editor.3) Click on the “Open Pixlr Editor (Advanced)” link.4) Click on the “Create a New Image” link. It’s the first option.5) You then have to chose a size. You can manually set the size, or there are some options to chose from. My images were 2448 x 3264. I had to load an image first to see the size. If your size is not set the same as your images, it will crop out a large portion of your image, which gets frustrating. After that, a white blank working box will appear.6) Next, click on “File” and then select “Open Image.” Find the base image (mine was the image on the far right) from your documents on your computer and upload it.7) After that image appears, you need to unlock it. There is a box on the right, middle side of the screen titled “Layers.” There will be white box with “background” written next to it. There is a lock next to that. Double click on that lock. You will need to repeat this for all images and the initial blank box.8) In the toolbar, there will be a Marquee tool, found under the crop button, that you need to click. Then use that tool to select all of the first picture. (You will select less and less of each subsequent image, subtracting an equal amount from the right side of each image.) After you have selected the portion you want to use, press “Ctrl + C” to copy that portion.9) Click on the Blank box and press “Ctrl + V” to paste that into the working blank box. If you need to move the image, which you probably will move more as you paste each subsequent portion into the box, click on the Move Tool and then move the image into place.10) Repeat steps Step 6 – Step 9 for the number of different images that you want to include. Make sure you divide out the space equal to however many images you want to combine. Don’t forget to unlock each image that you upload so you can copy and paste it.11) Last, go to “File” and select “save” to save your image.

Boarder: I then entered into the “Open Pixlr Express (Efficient)” mode, uploaded the image, and added the feather boarder to smooth out the edges that didn’t line up perfectly.

When discussing how to teach crap detection, of course Wikipedia always arises. There are those that absolutely, under no circumstances, allow their students to use Wikipedia. However, if students are made to research a topic on which they are not experts, isn’t a starting point going to have to be established? Can’t Wikipedia serve as a great place for students to educate themselves before venturing off into the unknown world of scholarly research? After all, how bad is Wikipedia?

An experiment had to be done. Heather and I opened up our handy print Encyclopedia Americana and found that “exorcism” needed a little love; it was pretty scarce with information. Additionally, it only discussed exorcism through a Christian religious lens. Wikipedia needed to be referenced.

When viewing Wikipedia, a much more detailed entry was found. It included history, several different religious ties to exorcism, a scientific view, notable exorcisms, etc. Even Britannica could not quite compare, although it was much more thorough than its print brother. How can this be? Even thought Wikipedia can be (and is) edited by anyone online, it is a source that should be looked upon as a great source of information and perfect starting point for students researching some topic which they know little to nothing about. Then scholarly research can build on that foundation of knowledge.

The fact of the matter is that there are too many people deleting incorrect information, but not just incorrect information; information is even removed if it is not proven with a scholarly source, as we saw with the exorcism entry. Wikipedia is starting to be able to keep up with the big boys on the research playground.

An entry into my professional world. I have many goals that I still wish to accomplish and this blog will help me to be introduced to different ideas that will help me to grow as an educator! -Ashley McFarlan